

PEAYEEFUL SYMPATHY INVOKED 



FOR 



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AMERICA. 



A SERMON 

PREACHED AT CROSS STREET CHAPEL, ISLINGTON, ENGLAND, 
ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21st, 1862. 

BY THE 

Rev. ALFRED C. THOMAS. 




WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 



606 Chestnut Street. 
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PRAYERFUL SYMPATHY INVOKED 



FOR 



AMERICA. 



A SERMON 



PREACHED AT CROSS STREET CHAPEL, ISLINGTON, ENGLAND, 
ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2Ist, 1862. 



BY THE 

Rev. ALFRED C. THOMAS. 



}pl)*ilai^l|3l)ia: 
WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 



606 Chestnut Street. 
1863. 



SEEM ON. 



"The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of 
Jacob defend thee. Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen 
thee out of Zion. Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt 
sacrifice. Selah. Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil 
all thy counsel. We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of 
our God we will set up our banners : the Lord fulfil all thy petitions. 
Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will hear him from 
his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust 
in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the 
Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen : but we are risen, and 
stand upright. Save, Lord: let the king hear us when we call." — 
Psalm xx. 

There are four theories respecting the occasion of 
writing this Psalm: 

First, That it was composed in reference to the 
Syro-Ammonitic war, as related in 2 Sam. x. 

Secondly, That it was prepared for the special 
encouragement of the king during the rebellion 
under Absalom, as recorded in 2 Sam. xv, — xviii. 

Thirdly, That it has no special national reference, 
but was composed by David to teach the people, 
with their king, how to deport themselves towards 
God and each other in all times of national distress, 
and especially in time of war. 

Fourthly, That while it has this national culture 
and guidance in view, it looks forward to the dis- 
tresses of God's church in all ages -while contending 



4 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

against evil, and aiming at the ultimate triumph of 
the Redeemer's kingdom. 

It is not of special consequence in regard to the 
object for which this Psalm is chosen, to determine 
which of these theories is best supported by internal 
evidence. Before dismissing the question, I would 
offer one remark: there is no necessary incongruity 
between the first two opinions and those which fol- 
low. The Psalm may have been composed in regard 
either to the war with Ammon and Syria, or to the 
insurrection and rebellion under Absalom, and yet 
be intended for general instruction during any time 
of national distress, and especially useful during a 
time of war; and though it might have had such a 
specific origin, it may also have a prophetic bearing 
upon the spiritual conflict of Christ's kingdom with 
the kingdom of this world, for nothing is more com- 
mon in the Psalms than for the sacred writer to look 
from the temporal to the spiritual, from the national 
to the universal. Let it not perplex you, that while 
David is said to be the author of this Psalm, he is 
also the subject to whom it refers. David wrote it, 
but in the name of the people of Israel, and for use 
in their temple service, and in the character of the 
"sweet singer of Israel." 

I like the idea, suggested by Tholuck, of dividing 
the Psalm into three parts, as follows: The first five 
verses sung by the Levites in the temple service in 
the name of the whole congregation of the Lord, and 
containing a prayer for the king, as the Lord's 
anointed, a prayer breathing devoutest confidence in 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 5 

God's protection, and in the righteousness of the 
cause they plead for. The 6th, 7th, and 8th verses 
sung by the king in response to the prayer so affec- 
tionately offered by the people, and declaring un- 
bounded confidence in God. Such confidence as 
amounts to the present realization of the blessings 
sought. The 9th verse, sung by the Levites, con- 
taining a prayer for the king, and expressing the 
assurance of being heard: "Save, Lord, the king. 
He (Jehovah) will hear us when we call." 

My brethren, it is with a deeply solemn feeling 
that I call your attention to this most suggestive and 
beautiful prayer, and for a truly solemn object. I 
want you to imbibe the very soul of this prayer, and 
for an object not dissimilar to that for which it was 
originally written and used. I want to excite your 
deepest sympathy, and stir up your most pleading 
prayers, for a nation in distress, a nation the nearest 
to us of all the nations in the world, in all the ele- 
ments of blood, language, religion, literature, gov- 
ernment, and commerce. I want your most prayer- 
ful sympathy for America. It is now nearly twelve 
months since I ventured to intrude this subject into 
the solemnities of our Sabbath worship — during the 
Trent affair. I do it now, as I did then, without 
any misgiving as to the rightness of doing it. On 
the contrary, I do it with the full persuasion that as 
a Christian and Christian minister, I ought to seek, 
as far as I can, to form in your minds right senti- 
ments on such an occasion of profound interest as 
that of the war in America. 



6 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

The " London Emancipation Society" has issued 
a circular to all ministers of religion in this coun- 
try, urging upon them a special remembrance of the 
negro race of America in their religious services on 
the first day of January, 1863. This circular is 
based on the Proclamation of the President, an- 
nouncing liberty to all the Slave States in rebellion, 
on and after the first day of January 1863. 

I had purposed addressing you on this subject 
before my attention was called to the circular. I 
am confirmed in my purpose by it. On that day 
we can and will pray for our oppressed fellow-crea- 
tures; but I prefer, if possible, exciting your prayers 
beforehand, and showing our sympathy while the 
thing is proposed, and not accomplished. I would 
be among those who would cheer on that people 
and government in a noble and most difficult enter- 
prise, because I believe it is in the direction of 
truth and justice. I would not merely stand among 
those who will cheer its fulfilment, as thousands will, 
who now jeer at the projectors, and cast all obstacles 
in their way. I can submit to be thought mistaken 
in the views I shall advance, and I hope, willingly, 
receive correction of them; but I would not be 
unmanly in concealing them, because they happen 
not to be popular, and we cannot advance success in 
support of them. 

Allow me first to lay before you the occasion 
which calls for our prayerful sympathy as a christian 
people. First, I invoke your prayerful sympathy for 
a people in the pangs of civil war. 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 7 

A nation at war with another nation is a just 
object of sympathy to all good men, provided there 
is any ground that justifies its recourse to the sword. 
There are few greater evils than war; but I think 
there are some, and we shall all probably agree in 
regarding slavery as one of the evils which can afflict 
a people greater even than war. But a nation rent 
by civil war is of all the most pitiable under the dire 
sway of the sword, because passing through the 
severest ordeal to which a nation can be subjected — 
an ordeal of fire and blood. The ravages committed 
by war are painful under every circumstance, but 
those committed by civil war are committed on its 
own citizens. The blood shed in war is awful to 
contemplate at any time, but that shed in civil war 
is the blood of its own sons. The treasure wasted 
in war is always an enormous sacrifice^ but that 
wasted in civil war is the precious fruit of the 
thought and toil of its own citizens alone. The 
animosity enkindled by war is dreadful to think of; 
but what is it when sown between brethren of the 
same blood, language, and religion, living upon the 
same soil"? In civil war, the national stability 
endangered is wholly its own ; the national progress 
checked, all its own; the national energies crippled, 
mainly its own. There is not even the s-mall and 
unenviable gratification of injuring another and 
rival nation. Even the triumphs of the sword 
awaken only a saddened joy, for they are only the 
triumphs of brethren against brethren. And even 
the restoration of peace is a pleasure, chastened by 



8 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

the fact that it is procured by the humiliation of 
our brother. If we have read the history of our 
civil wars, we ought to be able to comprehend what 
they are suffering now, and extend to them our most 
prayerful sympathy in this, their first baptism of 
blood. 

Secondly. I would awaken your prayerful sympathy 
for a people contending for an established Govern- 
ment. Civil government is a divine institution, and 
when it is founded on right principles, and carried 
out with due regard for the liberty and security of 
the subject, consistent with the maintenance of its 
authority, is one of the best blessings confeiTed upon 
a people. Good government is so inestimable a 
benefaction to a free people, that to guard it against 
menace or overthrow is one of their simplest obliga- 
tions. To submit to all and every attack made upon 
its principles and authority without repudiation and 
resistance — armed resistance if necessary — is coward- 
ice, and shows it is either a good above their appre- 
ciation, or too bad to arouse them in its defence. 
Such a government, if bad, deserves to be swept 
away, for a government exists for the good of a 
people, and not a people for the good of a govern- 
ment; and if so good, the people who are too 
degraded to appreciate it, deserve to be threatened 
with the overthrow of it, to arouse them to due con- 
cern. When a government ceases to be rooted in 
the affections of a people — when it ceases to guard 
and consolidate their liberties — when it has lost the 
power, morally and physically, to maintain its legiti- 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 9 

mate authority — then its removal is a good; but to 
aim at the overthrow of a government not charge- 
able with any of these failures, can scarcely, in any 
instance, be other than the greatest national crime, 
for it plans the overthrow of the greatest national 
good. 

To understand the attempt now making in Amer- 
ica to overthrow national government, a few facts 
not commonly acknowledged in this country need to 
be recalled to mind. It is commonly alleged that 
secession is an inherent right of every State com- 
posing the Union. This is based on the fallacy of 
the assumption, that the Union is simply a confede- 
racy of sovereign States — States which retain their 
sovereignty, though in the Union — States which 
entered that confederacy at their pleasure, and can 
go out at their pleasure, and commit no more wrong 
in the one case than the other. This is not the fact ; 
States are sovereign only in their own territorial 
jurisdiction, but not sovereign at all in regard to 
matters of national legislation. Nor is the Union a 
Union simply of States, but of the ichole American 
people. The Union rose at the voice of the national 
will, and can be modified or destroyed only by the 
concurrence of that national will, or, which is the 
same thing, by the free consent of three-fourths of 
the whole manhood of the country. Its Constitution 
is drawn up in the name of the people, not of the 
States, and begins, ''We, the people, ^c, not ''We, 
the States." 

The greatest minds of that country hold secession 



10 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

to be morally and legally wrong. Permit a few 
quotations. President Jackson said, " To say that a 
State can separate at will from the Union, is to say 
that the United States is not a nation." Henry 
Clay said, " The submission which I owe the Union 
is absolute, that which I owe my native State is 
relative" Washington, in his Farewell Address, said 
to his' fellow-citizens, " Be, before all, children of the 
same confederation, American citizens, rather than 
the citizens of such or such a State. Let the 
Federal Constitution be your ark of safety." Daniel 
AYebster said, " I maintain that the Constitution of 
the United States is not a league, a confederation, a 
contract between the people of different States acting 
in their sovereign character, but a Government, 
properly so called, based on the adoption of the 
people. No State has the power to dissolve these 
relations." 

One would think this might have been sufficiently 
well known in England to have kept many from 
falling into such a mistake, who have lent their 
influence to propagate it. We may understand the 
plea thus put forward by looking nearer home. 
What would be thought of the opinion that any 
county of England had a right to secede from its 
submission to national authority and government, 
because it had some fault, real or fancied, to allege 
against that government ■? Just suppose that when 
the corn laws were abolished, the agricultural dis- 
tricts of England, fancying themselves aggrieved, 
that national legislation, so long in their supposed 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 11 

favor, was turning against them, and in favor of the 
manufacturing interests of the country, had risen 
and proclaimed themselves separated from the 
nation, and no longer subject to the authority of the 
constitution and sovereign. Who would maintain 
their right to do that? What would be thought if 
Scotland, or Ireland, or Wales, were to proclaim 
their independence of England? Would these 
preachers of the right of secession preach it at home? 
W^hen the Sepoy mutiny rose, and disputed our 
authority in India, who in England justified their 
right to secession? And yet they had become a 
conquered race, and their country had become the 
property of strangers by force of arms, not done by 
peaceful and voluntary union. The case of America 
in the present struggle is as nearly as possible paral- 
lel to these illustrations. The Government of that 
country has been for many years in succession in the 
hands of the Slaveocracy ; they have had everything 
in their own way; they have during these years 
raised slavery from the position of a tolerated, apolo- 
gized thing, to be the dominant idea in legislation, 
and in all the relations of the Government to the 
people, and to other nations; from that party has 
come all the gross insults to England ; instigated by 
hatred of our conduct to the slaves within our 
dominions, containing, as it did, so keen a reproof 
to them, madly bent upon forging new legislative, 
fetters for the same race in their country; from that 
party came the "Fugitive Slave Law," and the repeal 
of the " Missouri Compromise." 



12 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

President Lincoln was elected by a party whose 
guiding principle was the non-extension of slavery 
into any of the Territories of the country not yet 
become States of the Union. That party, while 
acting on this constitutional principle, held all 
existing laws of the Union sacred, and asserted its 
determination to stand by the Constitution. At once 
the South — the long dominant South, the- long 
petted South — like a spoiled child, peevishly turned 
round and said, " I won't stay in the Union," " I'll 
go away," " I'll set up on my own account." " If I 
am beaten, though fairly beaten, I won't submit." 
And without submitting its grievance (if it had any) 
to the whole country, and without attempting to 
show that it had been wronged, or that the Consti- 
tion had been violated, either by the party electing 
or the man elected, or the principles avowed in the 
election, away it went, like a wilful but resolute 
child, that could no longer have its own way, and 
proclaimed a Confederacy after its own heart, a Con- 
federacy whose corner-stone is perpetual slavery of 
the negro race, the renewal of the African slave 
trade, and the extension of slavery into as many of 
the Territories as it could command, thus destroying 
all hope of freedom to the colored race, and blotting 
the fair Union out of existence. If that be a just 
cause for secession, then any minority in a state, or 
country, or province, or parish, or church, or society, 
has an equal right of secession, when it cannot 
rule the majority, and bend every thing to its own 
will. 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 13 

This defeated minority, accustomed at home to 
irresponsible power, began this fratricidal war. At 
their door lies the guilt of having unsheathed this 
sword, upon them is the blood of the thousands that 
have fallen in this conflict between freedom and 
slavery, between good government and anarchy. I 
have no alternative, therefore, in the presence of 
these indisputable facts, but to designate this war, 
so begun, and continued, as the most causeless^ and 
therefore as the most uicked, the world has ever 
seen. Can I do otherwise, then, than regard the 
defence of that Government on the part of the loyal 
States as the most necessary and righteous any people 
could be engaged in. If a government violates not 
the constitution it has sworn to maintain, then all 
loyal citizens are bound to defend it, even with their 
largest treasure and their most priceless blood. The 
loyal States regard their Government and Constitu- 
tion as the noblest the world has ever seen, or any 
nation ever enjoyed. I offer no opinion on this; but 
it is due to this conviction, that they defend both, if 
needful, even to the sacrifice of their life. 

Do not suppose, brethren, I am, in my sympathy 
with the cause of good government in America, for- 
getful of -the curse and miseries entailed by war. I 
have no words to express my abhorrence of its un- 
reasonableness and wickedness, but I am far less 
able to express my abhorrence of the unmitigated 
wickedness of slavery. It is a choice of the two 
greatest evils that any nation could be cursed with, 
and had the Northern States and the Government 



14 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

chosen slavery rather than war, the toleration of 
anarchy, rather than the defence of constitutional 
government, instead of deserving the sympathy and 
prayers of all Christian people, they would have 
deserved the contempt of mankind, and they would 
have had it, not only in this generation, but also in 
generations yet unborn. 

Thirdly. I would bespeak your prayerful sym- 
pathy in behalf of a people suffering the chastise- 
ment of Heaven for conniving at, and abetting, the 
greatest crime against humanity, and the greatest 
sin against God. It is admitted by most i\.merican 
Christians, that this war is a retributive judgment 
on account of their national ingratitude, haughti- 
ness, and wickedness in the sight of God, and above 
all, for their grievous sins against God and humanity, 
not only by their complicity with slavery, but also 
in numerous ways besides. I am concerned now 
only with the part they have taken in regard to 
slavery. The American Government is based upon 
the manhood of its subjects. Their equality before 
the law, and their inherent right to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness, as set forth by their fathers 
in the declaration of independence. Slavery was an 
entail of this country to America at that time, when, 
of the thirteen States that composed the Union, 
there was but one really free from slavery, (Massa- 
chusetts.) It was then a tolerated thing, to be re- 
moved in time. A cancer to be rooted out. An 
excrescence upon the fair form of the Constitution to 
be cut off. Instead of that being done, through 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 15 

cupidity and lust of irresponsible power, from re- 
garding it as a tolerated evil, which the fathers did, 
the sons became, first its timid defenders, on the 
ground of insufficient labour, then on the ground of 
inferiority of race, and then on the profitableness of 
their toil, and then on the blasphemous pretence of 
having biblical authority for this accursed thing. 
Having reached this summit, they demand for it 
prior influence in all national legislation, and the 
whole people, North and South, allowed this mon- 
strous evil, " the sum of all the villanies," as Wesley 
termed it, to grow in insolence, in barbarity, in des- 
potic usurpation of free speech, within the Slave 
States, and in brutal violence when that freedom of 
speech was directed against it, even in the free 
States, and in the halls of legislation, until the crown 
of its wickedness was reared in a "Fugitive Slave 
Law," and the free States became the " man traps 
and spring guns" of the South. In this way a 
practical lie has been more and more given to the 
fundamental article of their Constitution. But the 
cross of Christ confirms the fundamental law of 
the Constitution, by acknowledging the equality of 
human souls before God. That nation is professedly 
Christian. Its slavery has given a practical lie to 
its religion as well as to its Constitution. 

Can we wonder that God is angry'? That a 
nation so exact in material, intellectual, and reli- 
gious blessings, should be severely chastised by 
Almighty God for its practical infidelity'? And 
whence comes the chastisement '? By the very 



16 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

hands that have been foremost in piling up this 
huge sin in the face of heaven. The Slaveocracy 
are the sword by .which God is chastising these 
free States and free Churches for their complicity 
with "the sum of all the villanies." You see that 
God is contending with them in even the reverses 
that have attended their efforts to subdue this most 
formidable rebellion. It must then be admitted that 
this people are suffering the just displeasure of 
Almighty God. But on that very ground, I plead 
their claims to our prayers and sympathy. The 
whole nation is under the hand of God. That hand 
is heavy upon them. Will you cast stones at them 
now] Is this the time to turn our backs upon 
them '? Shall we do nothing but rake up and cast in 
their teeth all their past offences'? Is this English, 
manly, brotherly, christian 1 Shame on those who 
can do nothing but take pleasure in the misfortune, 
the judgments, that have befallen a nation so near 
to us, a nation that, but as yesterday, "went forth 
from our loins." 

I will not dishonor our common Christianity by 
asking if you can give one pulsation of sympathy to 
these revolted States — States whose guilty Confede- 
ration proclaimed slavery for its corner-stone, and 
blasphemously applies to it words made sacred to 
every christian heart by their reference to the Re- 
deemer of men. Vice-President Stephens says of it, 
" Its foundations are laid, the corner-stone rests upon 
the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the 
white man, that slavery is subordination to the 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 17 

superior race, — is his natural and normal condi- 
tion, — the stone which was rejected by the first 
builders, is become the chief stone of the corner in 
our new edifice." 

I cannot but think our prayerful sympathy should 
flow all the more readily, from the fact that we too 
are suffering along with them, that we are not 
wholly free from the guilty thing that has precipi- 
tated, this conflict; we have restricted ourselves to 
the produce of slave toil; though waraed, we have 
gone blindly on, and now their chastisements extend 
to us. Shall I plead in vain for a nation under the 
hand of God, when I plead with those who are pass- 
ing through the furnace too, though, in mercy to us, 
not heated as for them \ If you sympathize not 
in their defence of established government, surely 
you will not withhold either sympathy or prayer for 
them as smitten by the hand of God. "If one 
member sufi"er, all the members sufl'er with it." 

Fourthly. I would bespeak your prayerful sym- 
pathy for a people and Government treading in the 
path of truth and justice. Let me impress on your 
minds that the present Government was called to 
power for the express purpose of putting a stop to 
the extension of slavery. Mr. Lincoln was nomi- 
nated for the Presidential chair, and elected on this 
avowed principle, viz., « That the normal condition 
of all the territory of the United States is that of 
freedom— and we deny the authority of Congress, or 
a Territorial Legislation, or of any individuals, to 
give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of 
2 



18 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

the United States." This principle the Govern- 
ment can maintain constitutionally, by declining to 
admit new Territories (and the territory referred to 
is nearly as large as Europe) as States into the 
Union with slavery in their Constitution ; but it has 
no power to interfere legislatively with slavery in 
existing slave States. This accounts for the fact, so 
loudly declaimed against in England, that the 
President and his Government did not pass a law 
abolishing slavery once and for ever; to say nothing 
of the fact that they could not have carried such a 
proposition through the legislature, they had no 
right to do it; they were without constitutional 
authority to do so; they would have given some 
justification to this rebellion. But what the Govern- 
ment could do legislatively, and as a military 
necessity, it has done. 

It has abolished slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, the only district in which the Government has 
local authority. Compensation has been ofi'ered to 
the border States for the emancipation of their 
slaves. Slavery has been for ever excluded from 
the /Territories ; it can therefore have no possible 
extension, and non-extension is death to it. The 
Government has made a treaty with this country for 
the more effectual suppression of the African slave 
trade. It has carried out, for the first time, the law 
of the United States, which declares the importation 
of slaves to be piracy. It has formally recognised 
the Negro Republics of Hayti and Liberia. And the 
President, as holding the supreme military authority 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 19 

of the Union, has issued a proclamation, declaring 
that on the first day of January 1863, all slaves in 
States then in rebellion against the Government, 
shall be absolutely free henceforth and for ever. 
And in his recent message to Congress, he recom- 
mends that the Constitution be so far amended by 
the requisite authorities, as to make compensation a 
legal tender to every State which shall at any time 
abolish slavery before January, A. d, 1900. These 
are unquestionable facts, and, under such adverse 
circumstances, facts that reflect the highest honour 
on the President and his administration. 

I know it is objected that the war was not under- 
taken on the part of the North for the abolition of 
slavery, but for the maintenance of the Union, that 
big idol of the nation. Supposing this to be all the 
truth, I would say, "most noble object!" If they 
cared not for its integrity, they would cease to be 
worthy of it. 

Again, it is objected, all this abolitionism is a 
necessity^ not a choice. Shall we condemn them 
for ■•' learning wisdom by the things which they suf- 
fered"] Are they prohibited from "learliing right- 
eousness, when the judgments of God are abroad in 
their land"? Could anything but war have revo- 
lutionized the opinion of that people on the subject 
of slavery? Shall we find fault that God has done 
in about eighteen months, by the sword, that which 
a lifetime of teaching and agitation could not have 
effected — that which, in fact, seemed closed against 
all teaching and all agitation? Shall we blame them 



20 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

that they have opened their eyes when God was 
pouring a flood of light upon them — national sin'? 
Instead of reproaching them for tardiness, would it 
not be nobler to animate them in their most difficult 
undertakings by our prayers? 

Remember, too,. that they are not treading in the 
path of justice by words merely; deeds and suc- 
cesses follow their words. Is it nothing that, proba- 
bly, more than a quarter of a million out of the four 
millions of slaves have been already freed by Federal 
arms and chances of war "? Is it nothing that, probably, 
a thousand slaves per day are now regaining their 
freedom'? Is it not a glorious thing, that, whereas 
a year ago 800,000 square miles were included in 
rebeldom, nearly three-fourths have now been re- 
deemed by Federal arms^ Of the fifteen slave States, 
eleven cast in their lot with the South, and passed 
secession ordinances, two voted it down, while the 
remaining two did not even entertain it. And in 
the eleven, the ordinance of secession was never put 
to the vote of the people, with the exception of Vir- 
ginia; and there the ballot box was in charge of 
southern bayonets, and loyal citizens were prevented 
from voting. Notwithstanding that, Western Vir- 
ginia has separated from the rest of that State, and 
has been admitted into the Union ; and of the eleven 
seceded States, not one is now wholly under Confed- 
erate rule. The rebellion embraced seven millions 
of white people at the beginning; now, not more 
than two and a half millions acknowledge its sway: 
and yet men in this country daily ask, " What have 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 21 

they donef It is a fact worth pondering, that, 
amid all the chances of war, every battle has, as yet, 
been fought on slave soil. The ground that has 
received the blood of the combatants is the same 
ground which has, for years past, with the blood of 
the slave, cried to heaven for retribution; while in 
the free States, beyond the passage of armed men 
hastening to the scene of conflict, you would not 
know there was war at all. These are facts that tell 
the results that have followed a people treading in 
the path of truth and justice. Do they not excite 
your deepest interest? Shall not a people threading 
their way through a labyrinth of difficulties to estab- 
lish good government on firmer foundations than 
ever, and to give freedom to four millions of our fel- 
low men, have our prayers and sympathy'? 

Fifthly. I bespeak your prayerful sympathy for a 
God-fearing President, called to the most arduous 
duties of any man in the world at the present 
moment. 

It is said that he is not a man of genius, as 
though that disqualified him for our sympathy. If 
it were so, one would think him all the more an 
object of prayerful sympathy; but supposing he is 
not, — the world's greatest benefactors have not 
always possessed that coveted talent. It is not 
questioned that he is honest; a less scrupulous man 
might have achieved more, but he is too honest to 
gain success by unworthy means. Honesty will tell 
when "smartness" will be outwitted; beside this, 
honesty of purpose is a weapon that not one of his 



22 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

opponents can employ to cope with him. It is not 
questioned that he is a man of God, a man who in 
this hour of fiery trial looks up to God, lives in the 
fear of God, and hangs upon God. It is not ques- 
tioned that his position is the most arduous any man 
holds in the world just now. He is at the head of 
all aifairs, civil and military, home and foreign. It 
is no easy thing so to rule as to keep at peace with 
so many nations, all interested in the conflict, and 
many desiring the severance of the Union he is 
sworn to maintain. The man is not to be envied 
who commands a people in their ^'rst haptism of 
blood, who is called to power in a national crisis, the 
like of which has not befallen any nation. 

He seems alive to the complicated difficulties and 
solemn responsibilities of his position. In his recent 
message there are these thoughtful words: "The 
dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the 
stormy present. The occasion is piled high with 
difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As 
our case is so new, we must think anew and act 
anew. We must disenthral ourselves, and then we 
shall save our country. Fellow-citizens, we cannot 
escape history; we of this Congress will be remem- 
bered in spite of ourselves; no personal significance 
or insignificance can spare one or another of us. 
The fiery trial through which we pass will light us 
down to honor or dishonor to the latest generation." 
Brethren, shall this man of God have none of our 
sympathy, none of our prayers'? God forbid. 

When King Radama the Second ascended the 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 23 

throne of Madagascar, after the death of his cruel 
mother, a,nd all England knew of his sympathy with 
those Christian subjects that had been so relentlessly 
persecuted, who in England did not feel prayer- 
ful sympathy with this king in his new and trying 
position^ Who did not rejoice in the thought that 
the Lord's people would be free to worship God in 
the way they chose, that the Missionary of the 
Cross would soon enter the country and resume 
labors for twenty years suspended'? Who did not 
grieve at the plot aimed at his lifel Who did not 
pray for the life and spiritual enlightenment ef 
E-adama. AYill any one draw a parallel between the 
difficulties of iladama and Lincoln, between the 
power entrusted to them, or between the benefits 
they are seeking to confer upon their countries and 
upon mankind"? Great as are the blessings of reli- 
gious liberty to a people who have only escaped the 
crudest martyrdgm, who will compare them with 
the civil and religious freedom of four millions of 
people ] It is probable that the twenty years' mar- 
tyrdom of Madagascar have not consigned to un- 
timely death more than southern slavery has done in 
the same time. The demoralizing eifect of Mada- 
gascar persecution upon the persecutors, cannot be 
as great as slavery upon the slaveholding, slave sell- 
ing, slave whipping, and slave killing class of the 
South. Madagascar martyrdom does not dishonor 
the name of Jesus as American slavery. I do not 
forget the differences between Radama and Lincoln, 
but would ask if prayerful sympathy be given to the 



24 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

one, who in this Christian England will withhold it 
from the other] 

I cannot but hope that in pleading for a people in 
the agonies of civil war ; a people contending for an 
established government ; a people suffering the right- 
eous chastisements of heaven; a people treading in 
the path of truth and justice; a president discharging 
the most momentous obligations in the fear of God — 
I shall not plead in vain. Indeed, I know already, 
that in many of your hearts they are continually 
remembered before God. 

• Having laid before you the occasions which call 
upon us imperatively for prayerful sympathy ; let me 
secondly^ — Draw your attention to. the prayer we 
should offer on their behalf 

That God would hear the prayers of this people, 
and their President, in this their hour of judgment 
and distress. Verse 1, "The Lord hear thee in the 
day of trouble." 

We cannot doubt that this judgment of heaven 
has driven the Christian people of that country to 
their closets, and drawn them socially around the 
footstool of the heavenly grace. We are, in this 
country, suffering in their sufferings, and we bow 
ourselves humbly before God, confessing our sins, 
and imploripg God to remember us in mercy, and 
can we suppose that God's people are not in every 
part of that vast country entreating "the Lord to 
hear them in the day of trouble"] If we could sup- 
pose that they were not humble and prayerful, all 
the more should we pray for them, but as that is 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 25 

inconceivable, let us pray with them, let us join our 
hands with theirs, and lift them up before God in 
humble importunate pleading, that ''in the midst of 
judgment he would remember mercy," that he would 
hear their people and their President in this day of 
trouble. 

Let us pray that the God of their fathers would 
defend them against their foes. Verse 1, "The 
name of the God of Jacob defend thee." 

When Israel prayed, they addressed God in a cha- 
racter suited to the petitions sought for at his hand; 
they had once been the seed of Jacob, they were 
now the Israel of God; but they recall what God 
had been to them so long ago, he was their father's 
God. " Their fathers had trusted in him and had 
not been confounded." To increase their faith in 
Divine protection, now on the eve of national peril, 
they recall the means which they always associated 
with " the God of Jacob." They pray that his 
"name would defend them." All that God ?>, and 
all that God is known by^ in his dealings with a peo- 
ple, are included in his name. They invoke not only 
their father's God, but all that in mercy he had 
been to them in past ages, before they had any na- 
tional existence, down to that hour; all this they 
would arouse in the heart of God for their defence 
against their foes. Can we forget that the people 
now passing through this fiery trial are the children 
of "the Pilgrim Fathers" — descendants of men who 
carried our virtues and our defects to that conti- 
nent? As we bow in prayer for them, shall we not 



26 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

remember the God of Washington, the father of 
their nation? The God of Franklin, and of hosts 
of others, whose names are enshrined in the hearts 
of this afflicted people? Let the memory of these 
good men stir us up to pray that the God of their 
fathers would defend them against their foes. 

Let us pray that God would make them strong in 
all holy and righteous principles. Verse 2, "Send 
thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee 
out of Zion." 

When Israel prayed this prayer, they must have 
felt their cause to be a righteous one, and religion 
to be the source of their true strength. They went 
to war with the consciousness that their cause was 
itself the cause of God, and they were engaged in 
his service, therefore they could look confidently to 
Zion— the seat of the divine presence among them — 
for help and strength. W^e are taught by this, that 
religion is the source of strength to every righteous 
cause. No cause is really and continuously strong 
that is not right, and no right cause is wholly strong 
that is not supported by God. The fullest strength 
of any cause is when its principles are right, and its 
upholders right-hearted men of God. Then God's 
strength will be communicated, owing to the recti- 
tude of the purposes, and owing to the dependence 
upon Himself of the men who form these purposes 
and carry them out. In this world, wrong prospers 
for a time more rapidly than right, and it is only 
through invisible strength that right can prevail. I 
do not doubt that the President, and many godly ^ 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 2T 

people in that nation, look upon the conflict they 
are engaged in as one which God has assigned them, 
and that they go into His presence for guidance, for 
spiritual strength, for right-heartedness toward him- 
self, and toward the cause entrusted to their hands. 
I think I see tokens of divine help already given to 
them, especially in this, that the President is going 
steadily forward in the path of justice to the 
slave, notwithstanding the adverse elections, and 
the mighty obstacles thrown in his way on every 
hand. Heartily and trustfully let us pray this 
prayer, "Send thee help from the sanctuary, and 
strengthen thee out of Zion." 

Let us pray that God would remember their 
religious zeal in the past, and show them tokens for 
good now, in their day of trial. Verse 3, "Remem- 
ber all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifices 
always." Israel, not only on going out to war, con- 
secrated themselves to God, and propitiated divine 
favor by sacrifice, but it was one of their most com- 
mon acts of worship — one of the ways in which 
they showed their regard for the divine will and zeal 
in the divine service; and they confidently now 
implore God's remembrance of their religious zeal. 
I do not for a moment say that this is all that 
is implied in this request. Doubtless they felt 
that with the most righteous cause, and with the 
best dispositions of mind, they needed the pleading 
of the Great Sacrifice for their forgiveness and 
acceptance. But certainly, with this sacrifice in 



28 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

view*, they ask God to remember their former zeal 
in his service. 

No people have shown more zeal in religion than 
our brethren of America, both in their Home and 
Foreign Missions. In every principal hotel, and in 
every sleeping-room of that hotel, through all the 
States, their Bible Society has placed copies of the 
word of God. In every saloon, state-room, and cabin 
of their passenger steamers, that Society has done 
the same. Their colporteurs sell copies of the whole 
Bible for ten cents, and of the New Testament for five 
cents ; and are authorized, when there is no money to 
buy, that copies be given, so that every man, woman, 
and child throughout the country may have copies 
of God's word. That Society is printing now 11 
copies per minute of working time, or 6,500 copies 
daily, mainly for distribution among the paroled 
and rebel prisoners — the sick in hospitals — the new 
levies, and the colored people. In August and Sep- 
tember, about 298,000 copies of the Scriptures, in 
whole or part, were issued. Can v*^e not pray for 
this people, "Remember all thy offerings'"? You 
know of their missions in Germany, France, Sweden, 
Turkey, China, East Indies, and Burmah, for you 
are wont to hear of their missions and missionary 
zeal at our monthly missionary prayer-meetings. 
The churches of America have been our almost 
exclusive coadjutors in diffusing the gospel among 
the heathen; and no greater hindrance could arise 
to the conversion of the world, than for that land to 
be kept in constant internal feud. And no greater 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 29 

dishonor can men of the world charge upon the 
gospel than the continuance of American slavery. 
Can we not go to God with this Christian people 
upon our hearts, and pray that he would inter- 
pose for the stay of bloodshed, the abolition of 
slavery, and restoration of an established govern- 
ment all over that land'? Can we not use for them 
the prayer that Nehemiah did for himself when, lay- 
ing before God what he had done for His truth, he 
said, "Remember me, O my God, concerning this, 
and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for 
the house of my God and for the offices thereof"'? 
Let us remember, in order that our prayers for them 
may be strengthened, that "God is not unrighteous 
to forget your work and labor of love which ye have 
showed toward his name." 

Let us pray that God would carry their true and 
righteous purposes to complete fulfilment; verse 4, 
" Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil 
all thy counsels." Israel felt the greatest confidence 
in the moral integrity of the heart and purposes of 
their king, or they could not have prayed thus for 
him. The desires of the king's heart, and counsels 
of his will referred to, are those which bore upon 
this war. They are going out to defend their 
government and country from a most unprovoked 
attack, whether we regard that as coming from 
Ammon and Syria, or from Absalom's revolt. In 
this exigency they wholly trust their king; they 
confide in his moral goodness and his wisdom. Now 
this people trust their President, not with the 



30 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

national unanimity that Israel did their king. Good 
men of all parties confide in the moral integrity of 
their President, and they believe in the righteous- 
ness of their cause. Moreover, there is a growing 
conviction among christian men that the struggle is 
now narrowed to the question of slavery, and that 
their honor as a nation and as a christian people, is 
engaged " to put away the accursed thing from their 
midst." I doubt not they can pray this prayer, " the 
Lord grant thee according to thine own heart, and 
fulfil all thy counsel;" and may not we pray this 
prayer, laying aside all jealousies, whether we regard 
their purpose to restore the Union or abolish slavery 
for ever, "the Lord fulfil thy counsel"] 

Let us pray that the President may put a courage- 
ous trust in God, while using all means for the just 
and speedy issue of this war; verses, 6, 7, 8, "Now 
know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will 
hear him from his holy heaven with the saving 
strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, 
and some in horses : but we will remember the name 
of the Lord our God, They are brought down and 
fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright." 

This must have been a grand sight, to see the king 
rise, touched with the aftectionate pleadings of his 
people, and with his heart filled with confidence in 
God, and the certainty of his divine interposition, 
burst forth in this impressive strain, "Now know I," 
not ''I hope,'' "I trust,'' but "I know." The good 
man may commit his way to the Lord, and know 
beforehand with certainty that God will give him 



SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 31 

the desires of his heart. "Whatsoever things ye 
desire when ye pray, believe that ye have them, and 
ye shall receive them." This is a simple faith in 
God, antedating their victory; enjoying through 
God's mercy the sense of complete triumph even 
before the conflict. 

What christian heart does not wish and pray that 
the President might have such unquestioning faith 
in God as David had, and that this confidence was 
inspired by the same causes'? If he knew that in 
addition to the prayers of all good men in that 
country, he was also sustained by the prayers of all 
the churches in this, one could hope that he would 
thus joyously trust in God. I cannot bring my 
mind to believe in the ultimate disruption of the 
Union, any more than I can cherish a wish that it 
may be shattered. Nor can I for a moment question 
that slavery is doomed on that continent. It surely 
is not the purpose of God that one of the fairest 
regions of the earth should be cursed much longer 
with "the sum of all the villanies." Confiding in 
the divine goodness and justice, let us pray that 
both President and people may go on with a divine 
courage, filled every day with a divine strength, until 
their foes "are brought down and fallen, and they 
themselves are risen and stand upright." 

Finally — Let our prayers be reiterated, and trust- 
fully repose in God that he will hear and answer, as 
verses 5 and 9, "We will rejoice in thy salvation, and 
in the name of our God we will set up our banners ; 
the Lord fulfil all thy petitions." " Save, Lord, the 



32 SYMPATHY FOR AMERICA. 

king, He (Jehovah) will hear us when we call." If 
we would succeed in any service for God, we must 
not weary praying for it. If we would be blessed 
or bless others, we must be often at the mercy-seat, 
our prayer waxing more fervent, more trustful. God 
allows and sets value upon the importunity of his 
waiting people. " If the vision tarry, wait for it." 
Unexpected disasters may await the cause of truth 
and justice, before the final hour of triumph comes. 
Long perpetrated wrongs are not easily lightened; 
great national reformations, especially when depend- 
ing on the arbitrament of the sword, are often driven 
back like the rising tide from the shore, but gather 
force from every recession, and make its final advance 
a complete victory. Our faith may be sorely tested 
before we can turn our prayer into praise. But with- 
out fervent prayer, we shall never have the right to 
rejoice in God's salvation. Now give your prayers, 
christian brethren, now reiterate your prayer, "Now 
lay hold of God's strength, that you may prevail 
with him." Now say, ">Say<?, Lord., the Fresident and 
people,'^ and add, " the Lord ivill hear us when we call" 
and ere long you will '■'•rejoice in God's salvation in 
the saving strength of his right hand.'' 



;c5 



a w^n 



STOHY OF A MISSISSIPPI EEFUGEE. 

JUST PUBLISHED, 

OR 

SLAVERY AND SECESSION. 

By rev. JOHN H. AUGHEY, 

A REFUGEE FKOM MISSISSIPPI. 

Price $1. 

This volume discloses a few cases, among thousands, and makes us shudder 
to think of what might be told, could the whole truth find its way to the light. 
The author waa about eleven years at the South, and in this work he gives us 
an inside view of the machinery employed to precipitate the rebellion, of the 
stifling of Union voices, and of the merciless conscription. 

His own personal narrative is one of the most thrilling and touching ever 
written. The arrest, the imprisonment, the escape, the rearrest, the ironing 
under the uplifted sword, the re-incarceration, the filthy dungeon, the loath- 
some food, the second escape, the pursuit by cavalry and bloodhounds, the 
famishing from thirst and hunger, and the final exodus from the iron fur- 
nace, and reception under the folds^of the good old flag, form such a story, 
that we envy not the heart of him who can read it without deep emotion. 

So great has been the demand for this work, that the publishers have 
already received orders for over three thousand copies. 

HOW A FREE PEOPLE CONDUCT A LONG WAR. 

A Chapter from English History. By Charles J. Stille. 
8vo. Paper, 15 cents. 

"This is a most timely utterance, and we are sure, that wherever it is read, it 
will infuse new courage and hope into loyal hearts It shows that the scenes 
through wliich we are pissing, the state of public feeling toward the govern- 
ment, the disputes '\?i reference to public men and public measures, have 
nothing in them at all strange or unusual, but are in fact the almost universal 
and inevitable accompaniment of long wars — wars which in the end are 
entirely successful. The writer illustrates the whole by an exterfded refer- 
ence to what took place in the Peninsular War, under the leadership of Wel- 
lington." 

MUST THE WAR GO ON? 

An Inquiry whether Peace can be restored by any other means 
than War, and whether Peace upon any other basis would be safe 
or durable. By Henry Flanders. Price L5 cents. 

THE HISTORY AND THEORY OF REVOLUTIONS. 
By Rev. Joseph Clark, A. M. Price 15 cents. 

ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 

By Rev. Charles Hodge, D. D. Price 15 cents. 

THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY. 

By Rev. H. A. Boardman, D. D. Price 25 cents. 

WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 

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